The present disclosure herein relates generally to semiconductor devices, and more particularly, to semiconductor device manufacturing.
Semiconductor devices have various advantages such as miniaturization, multi-function, and low manufacturing costs. However, with high-integration of semiconductor devices, various limitations may occur. These limitations may make it difficult to manufacture semiconductor devices with desired characteristics and performance.
An alignment process may be required during semiconductor manufacturing. For example, an alignment process may be required in a photolithography process for defining semiconductor patterns for semiconductor devices, a test process for testing operational characteristics of semiconductor devices, and/or a defect detection process for checking defects of semiconductor devices. When misalignment occurs in a semiconductor device, characteristics of the semiconductor device may be degraded, and/or operation states of the semiconductor device may be affected. With high-integration of semiconductor devices, critical dimensions and/or distances of semiconductor patterns formed on a semiconductor device are becoming increasingly smaller. For example, semiconductor devices having very fine semiconductor patterns with critical dimensions of several nanometers may be required. As a result, alignment margins for semiconductor manufacturing may gradually decrease. To increase the alignment margins of semiconductor manufacturing, various research efforts are ongoing.